Markers of History

Historic Jamestowne mark­ers
Governor Harvey’s House, 1630s

Location: Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: John Harvey served as a mem­ber of a royal com­mis­sion inves­ti­gat­ing con­di­tions in Virginia in 1624. As a reward, he received land at the east end of New Towne. There he prob­a­bly built a res­i­dence and a wharf.

A tem­pera­men­tal sea cap­tain, Harvey was twice charged with beat­ing oth­ers – a ser­vant for demand­ing his free­dom and Richard Stephens, a coun­cil­man and fre­quent Harvey opponent.

When newly knighted Sir John Harvey returned as the new gov­er­nor of Virginia in 1630, he acquired addi­tional prop­erty, the for­mer Governor Sir George Yeardley’s lot across Pitch and Tar Swamp and this prime New Towne lot. Here he built a fine house that often dou­bled as the state­house dur­ing the 1630s.

Although the crown replaced Harvey as gov­er­nor in 1639, his house con­tin­ued in use as a state­house through the 1640s and 1650s. When Sir William Berkeley arrived in 1642, it again dou­bled as a town res­i­dence for the gov­er­nor. After Bacon’s rebels sacked and burned Jamestown in 1676, the house was rebuilt for a final time.

My impres­sions: I don’t know what is more sur­pris­ing to me: a pri­vate home being used as a state­house or the fact that it con­tin­ued that way after the owner was no longer gov­er­nor. I guess, think­ing about it a lit­tle more, it is less sur­pris­ing than it ini­tially seems, because the gov­er­nor was an appointed posi­tion at the time. I won­der if Governor Harvey returned to England after he was replaced. If so, he wouldn’t have needed it any longer, at least for a while. (I mean, he did leave in the 1920s and return to serve as governor.

I won­der what qual­i­ties there were that led the crown to decide that a “tem­pera­men­tal for­mer sea cap­tain” was suit­able to gov­ern the colony. Was his style a help or a hin­drance? Or was he tem­pera­men­tal enough that the English were just as happy to see him on the other side of the ocean from them?

Monuments, Statues, and Memorials
Jamestown Tercentenary Monument

Location: Historic Jamestowne, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of monument:

[north side]

Virginia Company
of London
Chartered April 10, 1606
Founded
Jamestown
and sus­tained
Virginia
1607 — 1624

[west side]

This mon­u­ment
was erected by
the United States
A.D. 1907
to com­mem­o­rate
the three hun­dredth
anniver­sary of
the set­tle­ment here

[south side, at same level as other engrav­ings]

Jamestown
The first per­ma­nent
colony of the
English peo­ple
The birth­place of
Virginia
and of
the United States
 – May 13 — 1607 -

[south side, on the base]

“Lastly and chiefly the way to pros­per and achieve good suc­cess is to make your­selves all of one mind for the good of your coun­try, and your own, and to serve and fear God, the giver of all good­ness, for every plan­ta­tion which our heav­enly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out.”

Advice of London Council for Virginia to the colony — 1606

[east side]

Representative
gov­ern­ment in
America
began in the
first House of
Burgesses
assem­bled here
July 30, 1619

My impres­sions: This is a very tall and impres­sive mon­u­ment. There seems to me to be some­thing very American about the obelisk: I don’t recall any off the top of my head that I saw in Canada, but this is the third sig­nif­i­cant one I’ve seen in the U.S. (The other two were in my pre-snarfing days: the Washington Monument in Washington, DC and the Masonic mon­u­ment to Washington in Alexandria, VA.) I don’t know what that says that the United States adopted the obelisk so often as a symbol.

Coming, as it does, as you are enter­ing Historic Jamestowne, the mon­u­ment is a great intro­duc­tory reminder to how much his­tory the place holds. It also chal­lenged a bit of my faulty mem­o­ries of his­tory. I had it in my head that Nova Scotia was the birth­place of rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment in the British Empire, but the Internet tells me I’m mis­taken. Nova Scotia saw the start of rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment in Canada, but that came in 1758, well over a cen­tury later than the estab­lish­ment of the House of Burgesses here. (In fact, Nova Scotia cel­e­brated the 250th anniver­sary of its estab­lish­ment there just last year.)

It also awes me to see a mon­u­ment like this and know that it was made early in the 20th cen­tury and that it was erected with­out all of the tech­nol­ogy we have today. And to think of the num­ber of hours it would have taken for all that lettering…what patience and ded­i­ca­tion and craftsmanship!

Historic Jamestowne
Governor Yeardly’s Lot, 1620s

Location: Historic Jamestowne, Colonial NHP, Jamestown, VA 23185

Visited: July 4, 2009, 1:40pm

Transcription of marker:

George Yeardly arrived in Jamestown in 1610, was appointed cap­tain of the guard, and even­tu­ally lieu­tenant gov­er­nor. Later knighted and appointed gov­er­nor of Virginia in 1618, he issued the Great Charter in 1619, estab­lish­ing the first rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment in Virginia.

In 1620, Yeardly acquired a seven-and-a-quarter acre lot extend­ing east from this loca­tion. A 1625 muster roll listed the mem­bers of Yeardly’s large house­hold: Yeardly; his wife Lady Temperance Yeardly; their three chil­dren; and 24 ser­vants, includ­ing three African men and five African women (eight of the first nine Africans doc­u­mented at Jamestown). The muster also lists 50 cat­tle, 40 swine, and 11 goats and kids on Yeardly’s lot. In addi­tion to three dwellings, Yeardly owned three boats — a bar­que, four-ton shal­lop, and skiff.

At this loca­tion, archae­ol­o­gists exca­vated the brick foun­da­tions of a struc­ture that may have been Yeardly’s. Scattered build­ing mate­ri­als along Back River sug­gest that two addi­tional dwellings, per­haps for ser­vants, may have been located at the east­ern end of his lot.

My impres­sions: After writ­ing about the mark­ers on the Colonial Parkway, it’s nice to get to a marker that has a bit of meat to it. And after being in Yorktown, where Americans fought to gain con­trol of their coun­try from the British, it’s a bit of a start to remem­ber that, oh yes, the British were in charge here. I like that this marker both explains who Governor Yeardly was as well as gives a link to the place you are stand­ing when you see it.

It is also stag­ger­ing to see a fam­ily of five requir­ing two dozen ser­vants. It was a dif­fer­ent age, that’s for sure! And more than 100 animals…well, I guess I can see how they would keep many ser­vants busy, since that seems like the type of work a gov­er­nor would not want to sully his hands with.

Notes for future snar­fers: This marker is on the path behind the vis­i­tor cen­ter, after you’ve paid your admis­sion or shown your National Parks pass.

The third and fourth mark­ers I’m post­ing today (this one and the “Cheatham Annex” marker to be posted later today) were both at the same pull-off along the Colonial Parkway.

Colo­nial Park­way mark­ers
Bellfield Plantation

Loca­tion: Colo­nial National His­toric Pkwy, York­town, VA 23691

Vis­ited: July 4, 2009, 12:05pm

Tran­scrip­tion of marker: The Bellfield house site and grave­yard are located some 300 yards to the east. This was the home of two early Virginia gov­er­nors, Captain John West in 1632 and Edward Digges who bought the prop­erty from West in 1650. Here Digges pro­duced supe­rior tobacco and led attempts to develop silk cul­ture in the colony.

My impres­sions: I will admit that I did not under­take a thor­ough search, but one of my dis­ap­point­ments with this marker is that it men­tions the prox­im­ity of the home site and grave­yard but doesn’t spec­ify if they are vis­i­ble or not from the road, etc. And on a curv­ing park­way, some hints as to how to face east would have been appre­ci­ated. That said, I do find it inter­est­ing that we have two gov­er­nors own­ing the same home. I won­der how often that sort of thing has led to the cre­ation of “offi­cial res­i­dences” where a cou­ple of office­hold­ers liv­ing in the same home, and at some point it is sold or willed to be a res­i­dence for the holder of the same office.

Today, I’ll start post­ing mark­ers I found while in and near Town Point Park in Norfolk for the park’s re-opening after con­struc­tion and for the first day of Harborfest. Today’s mark­ers come from the east­ern end of the park, closer to The Waterside build­ing. Tomorrow, I’ll start post­ing other mark­ers I found in down­town Norfolk on my way back from lunch that day, and later in the week the blog will return to Town Point Park.

Cannonball Trail
The Underground Railroad

Location: East end of Town Point Park, near Elizabeth River beside The Waterside build­ing, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 11:20am

Transcription of marker: After north­ern states began abol­ish­ing slav­ery dur­ing the Revolutionary era, fugi­tives from through­out south­east­ern Virginia and north­east­ern North Carolina started to escape by ship from the Norfolk water­front. With luck and deter­mi­na­tion, many suc­ceeded in enlist­ing the aid of black crew­men work­ing aboard northward-bound ves­sels. Two of the South’s most famous Underground Railroad fugi­tives, George Latimer and Shadrach Minkins, escaped from Norfolk, most likely by sea. A few ship cap­tains were known by local Railroad agents as being sym­pa­thetic to fugi­tives or at least agree­able to trans­port­ing them secretly for a price. Captain William D. Bayliss of the Keziah and Captain Alfred Fountain of the City of Richmond bravely trans­ported run­aways from Norfolk dur­ing the 1850s when local sen­ti­ment against the Underground Railroad was at its high­est. The City of Richmond docked at John Higgins’ wharf, east of the Berkley Bridge. Higgins was a for­mer owner of Shadrach Minkins.

The City of Norfolk was placed on the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom in 2004.

My impres­sions: The Underground Railroad is quite the story, and I know that I come nowhere near to under­stand­ing it, with what lit­tle knowl­edge I have gained as a kid in small-town Canada. I find it hard to set aside my absolute con­tempt for those who would enslave and exploit and even begin to under­stand how local sen­ti­ment could turn against work­ing for free­dom and how oth­er­wise upstand­ing peo­ple could accept injus­tice that appals me. Intellectually, I know there is more com­plex­ity to the issue of slav­ery but I find it hard to try to really under­stand what hap­pened, because my dis­gust and dis­ap­point­ment make it hard to see any other point of view than the one I hold from my com­fort­able posi­tion in the 21st century.

I do find it sad that the names of “two of the South’s most famous Underground Railroad fugi­tives” are unknown to me. I don’t know whether this is a bit of hyper­bole on the part of those who wrote the text of this marker or a blind spot in the pop­u­lar teach­ing of his­tory. I have my sus­pi­cions, though.

One small tech­ni­cal note, from what I’ve seen, I believe the last sen­tence is slightly mis­taken. I don’t believe that any cities (includ­ing Norfolk) are listed on the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom by the National Park Service. What I did find listed is the down­town Norfolk water­front, which would include the area of this marker. OK, I know…time to set down the red pen and move on…

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

Path of History
Craney Island

Location: Crawford Pkwy, just west of Court St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:40pm

Transcription of marker:

Craney Island played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the War of 1812, fly­ing the Flag of 1795, with fif­teen stars and stripes. American defend­ers held off over­whelm­ing British forces there on June 22, 1813.

Two hun­dred British sol­diers were killed, thir­teen taken pris­oner and forty deserted. There were no American casu­al­ties. This suc­cess­ful bat­tle saved Norfolk, Portsmouth and the Gosport Shipyard from British occu­pa­tion and destruction.

The USS Merrimack (1856 – 1861) was at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union. The Federal forces burned and sank the Merrimack as they with­drew from the Navy Yard.

The Confederates sal­vaged the ship and con­verted her to an iron­clad. She was com­mis­sioned the CSS Virginia in February 1862.

In May of 1862, as the Confederates aban­doned the Norfolk area, efforts were made to lighten the Virginia enough to allow her to move up the James River. Unable to do so, she was destroyed by her crew off Craney Island on May 11.

My impres­sions: More War of 1812. And I’ll con­fess that about all I remem­ber from what I learned of that war in his­tory class was “We won.” Oh yes, “and the Americans think they did.” I know the def­i­n­i­tion of “win” is what is impor­tant in fig­ur­ing out what one believes about the war, but as usual, I lack the knowl­edge of what hap­pened to even begin to under­stand it. Maybe a library trip is in my future, so I can pick up the his­tory that isn’t con­densed into only a few para­graphs on a marker here and there.

Given my under­stand­ing of the geog­ra­phy, this seems like a strange loca­tion for a marker about Craney Island, pre­sum­ably there because of the desire for the Path of History to be a walk­a­ble path.

I also received word, via a Flickr com­ment, that next month a his­tor­i­cal marker will be unveiled com­mem­o­rat­ing the Battle of Craney Island. (From fur­ther research, I believe that this will be a state his­tor­i­cal marker, but can’t con­firm that detail yet.) Unfortunately, it appears that my sched­ule won’t per­mit me to attend the unveil­ing, but I def­i­nitely hope to get there in the days after it’s unveiled.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting response on inclu­sion of Path of History.

You can cer­tainly tell that I was excited to get out and around after my cold! I missed the bus to start my trip. Rather than wait an hour for the next bus in that direc­tion, I decided to cross the road, catch the bus in the other direc­tion a few min­utes later, and then see if I could fig­ure my way there on my own.

Four bus trips and a ferry trip later, I was in Portsmouth (though I ended up arriv­ing there about the time I had planned to start head­ing home!)

The first mark­ers I saw (not count­ing the three I saw from the bus…and yes, I kept track of their loca­tions so I can go back for them) were three mark­ers between Crawford Pkwy and the Elizabeth River: two state his­tor­i­cal mark­ers and this Civil War Trails marker about Portsmouth Naval Hospital

Civil War Trails
Portsmouth Naval Hospital

Location: Crawford Pkwy (between Harbor Ct and Court St), Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of marker:

Portsmouth Naval Hospital
* * *
Administering to Both the  Union and Confederacy

This is the site of the Portsmouth Naval Hospital which served both the Union and the Confederacy dur­ing the Civil War. The Portsmouth Naval Hospital, the U.S. Navy’s first hos­pi­tal, was founded in 1827 by Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard. Architect John Haviland cre­ated Building No. One’s impres­sive Greek Revival design which fea­tures and embell­ished Doric por­tico of 10 columns. The facil­ity opened in 1830. The hos­pi­tal was built on the site of the Fort Nelson of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 era, which was a for­ti­fi­ca­tion made obso­lete by the con­struc­tion of Fortress Monroe across Hampton Roads on Old Point Comfort. Materials sal­vaged from the fort’s demo­li­tion were used in the con­struc­tion of the hos­pi­tal building.

When Virginia left the Union the hos­pi­tal was used by the Confederacy until Portsmouth was aban­doned by Southern forces on May 10, 1862. The Union main­tained the hos­pi­tal through­out the remain­der of the War sup­port­ing the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

In the hos­pi­tal grave­yard is a memo­r­ial to the 337 dead of USS Cumberland and USS Congress killed when these ves­sels were sunk on March 8, 1862, by the CSS Virginia. Fifty-eight Confederates are also buried there.

My impres­sions: This is an inter­est­ing place­ment for this marker, with the hos­pi­tal vis­i­ble across the water. I won­der if this is an attempt to “future-proof” the loca­tion, so that, if the naval hos­pi­tal were to expand at some point in the future, it wouldn’t be caught inside the new gates. it was also fun to have such a scenic loca­tion for a clus­ter of three mark­ers. Was a nice way to get the excite­ment up after the crazi­ness of the morn­ing!  I also have to say that this marker does a remark­able job of con­dens­ing a whole lot of his­tory into a small area.

Markeroni sta­tus: I direct-logged my visit ear­lier today.